1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutter cassette movably having a cutting blade therein and to a cutting device to which the cutter cassette is mounted for use.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the art to provide cutting devices using cutting blades of various shapes as office equipment for cutting paper into a designated size at a time. Among such cutting devices are a cutting device which uses a circular rotary blade as a cutting blade to prevent displacements of paper when cutting. This type of cutting device often includes a slider on a guide rail. There is also a hand-operated cutter of a more compact and portable type for cutting paper, cloth, felt and the like without the need for the guide rail and the slider. In the conventional cutting devices, various improvements and inventions have been provided in order to ensure safety for cutting blades which are exposed in use. Particularly, cutting devices equipped with a safety cover or the like for avoiding the cutting blade from contacting with hand. However, since the safety cover or the like must be removed when mounting the cutting blade on the cutting device, some cutting devices cannot interchange the cutting blades speedily. Furthermore, when a portion of the cutting blade is exposed, extra caution on safety is required for interchanging work; accordingly, prompt work may not be ensured.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,459 discloses a cutting device having a slider on a guide rail, in which the slider is pivotally mounted on the guide rail in an upwardly perpendicular relation thereto, so that speedier cutting-blade interchanging work is provided. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,001 proposes a speedy cutting-blade interchange by forming a portion for housing a plurality of replacement blades on a base and by configuring the slider on the guide rail to be freely opened and closed. Furthermore, in a cutter cassette disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-42979, in order to easily mount or interchange cutting blades without direct contact therewith, the cutting blade housed in a housing is covered by a protective plate which can be housed in the housing, thereby allowing the cutting blade to be covered or exposed as necessary and facilitating handling of the cutting blade. However, the cutting blades to be interchanged are prepared unprotected in any of these patents, so that the safety of users is not ensured. As described above, although the history of the invention for cutting-blade interchanging work of cutting devices is very old, many inventions and devices have been bound for a long time by a traditional viewpoint of interchanging exposed cutting blades.